how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Camel, Sahara, Kanguro, Coguaro
tried-them-all
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by tried-them-all »

i've found the grading mark on the gilardoni barrels (A), but it is a little awkward to clean the piston tops - can anyone give me a hint as to where the grading mark on the pistons is?
tried-them-all
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Joined: 23 Oct 2021 04:43
Location: australia

Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by tried-them-all »

hmmm, i just worked out that new stator I have with no red wire is from the electric start models, so that means i can do a 12v conversion I assume - any one care to recommend an alternate rec/reg - i've not seen what morini used.
morini_tom
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by morini_tom »

Looks like you've made good progress in identifying what you have.

At a guess the Giladroni barrels you have probably came off the kanguro X engine, but there should be no reason why they can't be used on any of them. The later type giladroni barrels of the kokusan engines are visually different to the ones fitted to the late pre-kokusan bikes so I suspect it's the kokusan engine barrels that need the bigger crankcase spigots. I have just measured a 350 dart engine (kokusan) I have on the bench and the spigot OD on the barrel is 71.85mm. Be interesting to compare that to your 'early type' giladroni one.

Paul is probably best to advise on the different stator combinations. No red wire I think is late 350/500? If it's just the stator you are considering changing you must ensure the rotor is compatble- later stators had wider bobbins and correspondingly deeper stators. I believe the early type is close enough to be able to be fitted without realising and risking rubbing through the coils. Most of my morini over the years have been kokusan ignition so the intricacies of the Ducati Elettronica system are not something I've dug too deeply into.

The outrigger bearing again appeared on the later engines. K2 for the road bikes, not sure which kanguros but you would assume all engines produced after around 1983/1984 moved to this design, although it was short lived as the outrigger was dropped when they moved to the kokusan engines of course. due to the pickups moving from the cam to crank mounted.

As a total aside to all this, the K2 is often considered the least desirable of the 350 road bikes, I guess due to the styling, but really it does benefit from over a decade of subtle, quite shrewd improvements from the factory.

The grading mark on the piston should be on the top land in the nook of the heron's heart (or bumcheek if you prefer). Here is one of my 501 pistons:
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norbert
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by norbert »

As far as I know the marks A or B on the nikasil cilinder (350 as 501) indicates a slight diference of diameter/clearing. So an A cilinder should wear an A piston. You often find the two A and B on the same motor.
The late X motors from the Kanguro, the one of the K2 and the CS motor from the customs to my opinion are the best 350: nikasil cilinder, M-camshaft and the modern crankshaft
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72degrees
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by 72degrees »

morini_tom wrote: 20 Nov 2021 09:30
As a total aside to all this, the K2 is often considered the least desirable of the 350 road bikes, I guess due to the styling, but really it does benefit from over a decade of subtle, quite shrewd improvements from the factory.
I had a K2 'Classic' for a while. An eminently suitable Morini 350 for touring. The M cam, however, was neither fish nor fowl in my experience, after having both a Strada and a Sport (not to mention the L5 equipped 2C/3735). Not the low down grunt of a Strada and not the top end buzz of a Sport. I kept waiting for it to "come on the cam", but it never did.

To add a smidgen to this topic, I can confirm that Kanguro heads will fit on non-Kanguro cylinders. Not sure they give much advantage other than having a bit more 'meat' round the exhaust ports though.
tried-them-all
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by tried-them-all »

ahhh, so there are kanga-specific heads? How do i identify those from the road version?
norbert
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by norbert »

There are some Kanguro heads with bigger valves, not sure which model exactley.
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72degrees
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by 72degrees »

A photo of the Kanguro heads I got of Ebay.de and Strada heads. These don't have larger valves, but do look 'different'.
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tried-them-all
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Re: how much difference between kanguro and strada engine?

Post by tried-them-all »

thanks for that, it is apparent the difference when you sit them next to each other, and the strange thing is 3 of the heads are the kanga type and 1 is the other type!
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